Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3

Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3
Developer(s)	Ion Storm Inc. 7th Level
Publisher(s)	Eidos Interactive
Designer(s)	Todd Porter
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date(s)	June 1998
Genre(s)	Real-time strategy
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	Animated Violence
Media/distribution	2 CD-ROMs
System requirements System: Pentium-166 or equivalent RAM: 32 MB Video Memory: 1 MB Hard Drive Space: 140 MB

Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 is a real-time strategy game developed by Ion Storm and 7th Level for Microsoft Windows. The game was published by Eidos Interactive in June 1998 on two CD-ROMs and boasted both single and multiplayer game modes. Dominion is a spin-off of 7th Level's earlier game G-Nome.

Production

Dominion was originally being developed by 7th Level before they sold the unfinished property to Ion Storm in September 1997. It was eventually released as Ion Storm's debut title in June of the next year.

Plot

The game takes place on the fictitious planet of Gift 3 where war has broken out between four different races: the Scorps, Darkens, Mercs and Humans. The setting is shared with G-Nome.

Gameplay

One aspect of the design of the game is that the races are not "equal": Darken forces are sturdier, but are slower to build; Scorp forces cost much less to manufacture, but are weaker than the other races; Merc soldiers are more difficult to control, but are more accurate when firing; and the Humans are a balance of all features. In addition, each race also gets one weapon type unique unto itself: Darken has a "cloaker" vehicle - which renders other vehicles invisible; the Mercs have the Widow Maker, which converts enemy towers and tanks into allies; the Humans have the M-Cat, which freezes any opponents' machinery from firing; and the Scorps have a Digger - an underground transport to deliver up to six men anywhere visible on the playing field. Each of these vehicles are extremely fragile - an infantryman with a rifle can destroy it in one shot if not well protected.

There are a set of twelve missions (a campaign) for each of the races, where the computer opponent has the next level up in armaments, men or machines. For instance, when the player has light infantry and machine gun towers, then the computer opponent will have bazookamen and rocket towers. There is a list of objectives to complete a mission, some requires the performing of certain tasks, such as recapture a fallen base or rescue a leader from prison, others to merely wipe out the opponent completely.

Multiplayer

There is a full eight player multiplayer mode that can be hosted for other players. There are four built-in connection types, serial, modem, ipx and tcp/ip for direct play. Like other real-time strategy games the multiplayer options can be set to have high or low resources and slow to fast speed. Mplayer was launched with Dominion and installed from the start.

Soundtrack

Dominion features an electronic soundtrack by Will Loconto; the tracks vary between dark spacey atmospheres and classic 90s style video-game-themed techno/electro.

External links

• Dominion: Storm Over Gift 3 at MobyGames